The Anchorage Assembly on Tuesday will consider sending a $9 million bond question to voters in April, asking the to allow the city to build 18 or more public potties, at a cost of about $500,000 per unit. Property taxpayers would foot the bill.
The question came up last year, sponsored by Assembly Chairman Chris Constant and Assemblywomen Anna Brawley and Meg Zaletel. It was postponed until Tuesday’s meeting.
The bond question would also ask voters to increase the tax cap by about $540,000 to pay for the maintenance of the toilets, which would be modeled after a similar project in Portland, Ore. In that city, after the toilets were installed, every single unit had been vandalized or damaged in some way within the first few months.
Three years after the 130 toilets were installed in Portland, most have been removed due to vandalism and rising maintenance costs. Only about 16 remain, according to a Portland spokeswoman.
Critics say that as Anchorage Assembly models the city after Portland and Seattle, it may be replicating the costly experiment.
The Assembly meets Tuesday at 5 pm at the Loussac Library, on the corner of Denali Street and 36th Ave.
“Public unions” exist to lobby against the interest of the public, and right now they control the muni government.
Amen
Palmer has a very nice outside facility next to the Museum. Ask them to take a look at that one first!
Since when has the Politburo cared about what citizens want? Serfs do as their betters tell them.
Since Constant is pushing this, I gotta ask. Are they for actual toilet usage, or is he trying to facilitate gay hookups in public places?
Considering the Politburo, it’s a fair question.
In Felix’s case, I don’t think much of anything is going to avail him in that regard.
Still, he is a good fashion model for Derelict Chic.
Let’s rephrase the question here:
Will the idiotic and radical-leftist-brainwashed Anchorage voters who elected a 75% diehard Marxist municipal assembly approve the utter waste of millions of dollars for public restrooms that will be immediately trashed and destroyed by the wandering zombie homeless dregs of society?
Yes, probably so.
Phrased that way, I’m surprised it’s taken them this long.
100% accurate characterisation
Trashed and destroyed? You can bet all you’ve got that they’ll be disgusting, immediately. Needles, filth, etc.
‘https://www.youtube.com/shorts/tQkBEjoY1ho
The 130 toilets that were installed and later removed were traditional port a potty style toilets, not the metal semi-permanent structures being proposed.
At least that’s what my search engine told me. Could you provide evidence that the “portland-loo” style ones were the vandalized toilets?
What so the homeless can vandalize and make them inoperable?
You bet you.
Let’s face it…if Constant is pushing for (can’t believe this) $500,000 toilets, the assembly will pass it. If our mayor vetoes it, our assembly will just override the veto like they always do. I am not sure of the Portland data but if the half million dollar toilets failed down there one has to wonder why it would be successful in Anchorage.
Their assuming we’re going to pass this..ha, they’ve got a few tricks up their sleeve to pass regardless of how we vote..
Let’s put them in front of the assembly’s homes.
Half a million dollars for a toilet?
Who is stupid enough to pay that much for a potty?
“…….Who is stupid enough to pay that much for a potty?”
Obviously, the Anchorage Assembly is stupid enough to do it. For that kind of money, why not buy three Anchorage homes for the price of two sidewalk toilets? You can put three bums per home and provide more than just a place to take a dump.
Well, because the neighbors of the homes you’d buy would sue after you put three or four bums in the place for them to deal with, and buying homes for bums with taxpayer dollars in itself is a lawsuit waiting to happen. Moreover, they’d just destroy the place in short order.
So no matter what you do, stupidity awaits like a tiger in the tall grass.
You just can’t fix stupid, and like we used to say in the engineering world, the biggest fool is he who attempts to make anything foolproof, cuz a fool can (and will) screw anything up.
Of course, there are going to be those who enjoy the crappy alternative and will be pissed if the vote for such a sanitary alternative is approved!
Oh, you really stepped in it now!
Oh child…
Grown ups are talking. Go find yourself some crayons.
Hud builds three bedroom houses in Villages located 4-5-6 hundred miles from the road system. Boiler, kitchen, living room and YES EVEN A BATHROOM for….. Yup, $500,000.
They just built two more this last summer in Quinhagak.
I can only imagine such nonsense at -20 deg who is going to use an outdoor bathroom in those conditions the homeless just piss on the street maybe they will use them as a shelter at the cost of the tax payer honestly this is the best they can come up to spend your money and it will pass here is my advice if you live in Anchorage RUN move to the valley if your conservative let them build the utopia they want until there dead broke they have no concept of how to run a functioning economy or city just Run
You can get into a decent home for half a mil. Why not just through up a potti subdivision and get more crap for your buck?
I would support this if the toilets required a fee per use (50 cents or maybe $1). Helps keep the bums out and defray the cost of their maintenance.
AK, did you do the math on that? At 50¢ per use, that would a million trips to the sh*tter just to pay it off.
Even a $100 fee would not offset the cost of install and maintenance.
If you think a fee keeps the street people out, you’re mistaken. It deters few and makes them 1/2 million dollar targets for vandalism.
It would do the homeless more good to pile up the money and set it on fire.
Wild. Just think how far $9 million can go into downtown revitalization. Or housing units to get some of these people off the streets.
Because if they have $500k toilets they won’t pull their pants down in front of the PAC?
Or what?
Berkowitz invited vagrants to camp out on the park strip and into downtown Anchorage. Maybe he’d like to open up his bathroom to public?
And yes, they will be vandalized and rendered inoperable in less than a year.
Do some more digging…somebody’s fellow assembly member, friend, or lover likely stands to benefit financially from this $9,000,000,000 “allocation.”
The Anchorage Assembly sends a $9M bond question to voters.
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The Municipal Clerk, employed by the Assembly, counts the votes and reports the results.
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Anchorage’s mail-in ballot system is vulnerable to unmonitored ballot harvesting, and ballot-box stuffing.
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Election obsevers don’t know what they’re observing or how vote-tabulation equipment is programmed to operate, which means miscounts can happen like magic, right before their very eyes, and they’ll be none the wiser.
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Voters have no resource for monitoring Election Central 24/7 because video surveillance gear can be looped or spoofed to display only what the operator(s) want the public to see.
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The accuracy of Anchorage’s voter rolls is unknown and is apparently not assured by election officials.
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Voters can’t be assured that the proliferation of bum housing has not led to a corresponding increase in voter registrations and mail-in voting at bum-housing addresses, aided by folks who want to help bums vote correctly.
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So, what’s the point?
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Bums, drug dealers, prostitutes, rent boys need warm, protected, gender-neutral places to do their business, and the Assembly decided taxpayers need to provide these places, no?
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Or, maybe it’s all about an epic racket, a lucrative, sole-source, cost-plus, public-potty service contract starting at $9M?
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Think about it. Potty contract’ll cost whatever the contractor says it’ll cost, in this case $9M give or take, and taxpayers’ll pay it because they don’t want to find out what happens when they don’t pay it.
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A shout-out to Eaglexit sponsors: How is this racket not going to happen in the new borough?
Agree entirely
Hmmm(?), at a cost of $500,000/unit, we should have clear answers to …
– Does this $500,000/ea (cost) include the installation?
– What are the operating costs (maintenance and servicing)?
– What are the engineering, permitting and commissioning cost?
– Do these units meet Handicap Standards requirements?
– Are there any special Zoning requirements?
– Will “Eminent Domain” be required to locate these units?
– Will an individual Attendant be required at each unit, 24/7?
– Has an Environment Impact Study (EIS) been completed?
– Has an Storm Water Pollution Plan (SWPP) been developed – approved?
Considering the condition of the Anchorage assembly, there obviously are enough Anchorage voters dumb enough to vote for this.
Put tin foil dispensers in them.
Ouch.
It wouldn’t surprise me, the people of Anchorage elected a socialist democrat assembly.
I agree with KGAK to run to the Valley. Like a lot of other people living in the interior I find no reason to go to Anchorage. I try to do all that I can in the Valley. Too many people in Anchorage are left leaning and those who aren’t are too lazy to get out and vote. So they get what they deserve. A S..t hole.
This place is not Japan. Our American public aren’t as respectful as Japanese to respect public restrooms. We need to earn the privilege having public restrooms in parks and such convenient places.
I do remember a time, long ago, when public restrooms were clean and well maintained. Now, if you can even find one, you are lucky to have a door on a stall, toilet paper or paper towels. Respect for property has greatly diminished along with morals, values, and families.
9 million dollars is a lot of therapeutic tissues. But, you gotta do what you gotta do.
Chris Constant and Meg Zaletel, walking out of the houses on the way to Assembly meetings to further their destruction of Anchorage:
“God do I love the smell of fetid homeless sidewalk urine in the morning!
It smells like … victory.”
If this were a viable solution, set up a sample case to test it. Before putting it up to vote. I am sure it will be an eye opener. Maybe the company that is such a hard sell could set up a sample in a high use area to show us how bulletproof lightweight brushed stainless steel holds up. No security guard has been proposed for the budget. An expensive eyesore in short order. A research of the contractor might also be in order, since there has been no mention of bidding process. Many local businesses are very capable of constructing such a simple outhouse and especially for that kind of money. Let’s a least make it a local windfall.
If the assembly members volunteer to clean them, I’ll vote for it. If any of them fail to honor their commitment, they forfeit their seats on the Assembly, and mayor Bronson gets to appoint their replacements.
Sound good?
I like it.
Like, the voters really have a say?
I doubt the Anchorage votes are actually counted in any manner that could be called accurate. I mean, seriously… has there ever been a bond issue that failed to pass? Doesn’t that strike anyone as odd?
How do people like Zalatel, Constant, and Rivera constantly get re-elected? If the people of their districts can occupy the assembly meetings for five nights to stop their homeless plans, how in the hell can the vote to re-elect them?
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The money will be wasted on this effort.
And, the streets will remain unplowed, the police budget will get cut, and taxes will go up.
All we need to know is that the assembly wants to spend $9 million on something modeled after Portland. Why would we want to do anything modeled after Portland? We should do the opposite of Portland.
Ok, then model it after Japan. Not an issue over there
It seems the users in Japan are not like those in Portland. Or Anchorage.
This will be hyped as needed for tourists.
We’re all in favor of expanding tourism, right?
This is idiotic and should be laughed out of town.
Even this stupid bunch on the Assembly are not dumb enough to pass this. It will be tabled for further study.
Was this in response to the gal who dumped a couple of buckets of PortaPotty effluent on KTUU’s doorstep and/or another step towards removing any vestige of self-reliance and incentive from the homeless population? If you leave a kid in diapers long enough, crapping their pants becomes acceptable behavior. These nuclear toilets will become the latest provisional equipment until a new list of bitches and moans travels up the ladder, through Zalatel via her homeless side hustle and, on to her buds on the Assembly where it will be rubber stamped so that they feel better about themselves and inch closer to the Portland/Seattle model. Only voting them out will work but, considering the rampant apathy plaguing the voting public in Anchorage, sadly that won’t be the case.
500k to build a single toilet this should be evidence that the assembly needs to be under constant audit. spending for an audit is probably the only spending bill (or an interdependent criminal investigation for the assembly & mayoral authoritarianism of 2020-2022) I’d consider voting yes on.
The Public loo’s are necessary and will serve primarily tourists and the homeless. These services should be paid from the bed tax and alcohol tax, not the taxpayers who will not benefit
Yah mon, you got it!
We should tax dem tourists for da privilege of lettin da homeless trash dem loos.
Makes sense to me, mon!
Now, pass me dat spliff of ganja agin.
Come on people, you can’t put a price on taking a good dump. Another plus is the Bums won’t have to do the nasty in plain sight anymore.
They won’t be used for pooping. By anybody.
The Portland Loo, though stainless-steel, costs nearly $185,000 for a single stall unit. My 53′ containerized ablution blocks, which can service 6-12 persons simultaneously, sell for $200,000/ea. The Portland Loo product line is nothing more than a “good idea gone bad”, and a means to waste hard-earned taxpayer money!
Some of the wasteful spending associated with these units includes the powder coating (a corrosion resistant barrier) applied to stainless-steel, which of course is corrosive resistant itself.
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